Today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a new Department of Education study that wrings its hands over the “problem” that the US now ranks 11th internationally in college attendance. The study’s director, Sandra Ruppert, moans that “It may be that it no longer holds true that each succeeding generation of Americans will be better educated than the one that preceded it.”
Oh does this make me sick — equating the possession of a college degree with “better education.” K-12 does a pathetic job in most cases and then kids go on to colleges where many go through, in the immortal words of Dean Wormer (Animal House) “fat, drunk and stupid.” But according to the educrats, someone with a BA is necessarily better educated than someone with only a high school diploma. Look for UNC types to make much ado about this report.
This report has it backwards: too many Americans go to college. They go for a while, take remedial courses, then drop out. Even among those who graduate, the best many can do is to take “high school” jobs that require little cognitive ability. There is already tremendous waste of resources in higher ed, but the education establishment always wants a bigger empire and will use any absurd argument to get it.
